Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1894 — OLD MAMMY'S VIGIL. [ARTICLE]

OLD MAMMY'S VIGIL.

A Pathetic Story of a Southern Land Boom. Clarksdale. Miss., Special, June 19. A rich syndicate desired to buy a plantation belonging to John Clark. On the plantation, in a lonely cabin, lives Aunt Dilsie, an aged colored woman, and near by. is the grave of her former master’s daughter. Her bld master told Aunt Dilsie she could have the place, but she must guard the little grave. When the offer.cf sale came, Clark went to see Aunt Dilsie to tell her the piece would be sold. She looked him straight in .the eye and said: “Old marsta put me heah to mine little missus grabe. an’ heah’s wha ole marsta fin' me when his speret comes. Yo’ kan’t selluis place.no how. Marsta John.” Then she threw herself upon the mound, and Clark could hear her talking to her dead mistress. “Dey wanted to sell yo’, but,bress de sweet missus, dey nebber sells yo’ grabe while Aunt Dilsie lib. Ole marsta gib me dis place an’ heah’s wha’ I stays till Gabriel wakes us all up in de mawnin’ an’ I put my missus in de arms of ole marsta, jess as he uster hoi’ her. Bress yo’ soul, honey, did you t’ink Aunt Dilsie let ’em sell yo’? Don’ yo’ min’. Dey ain’nliftin' goin’ to hu’t yo’ -while Aunt Dilsie heah.” The next day Clark again called on Aunt Dilsie to argue with her and insist that she had no title to the place, and that he would give her a much better home. She replied: “Marsta John, yo’ kan’t sell dis place nohow. Ole Marsta gib it tc me, an’ yo’ don’t do nothin’ with my little missis, who done sleep for thirty years right whah dese brack hands helped dem lay her. Dar she be, an’ heah I be when ole marsta die, an’ heah he fim’-ws- when he comes. I don’t know nuffin bout nc title an’ dem highfalutin’ tings, but Ido know dis cabin am mine, an' heah dis babin stays till I tote de little missus 'cross de ribber. May be dark night, Marsta John, when Gabriel come, an’ how my little missus goin’ to do lessen her ole brack mammy heah to holp her? G’long, Marsta John! I ain’ goin’ hab no words about it.” And the sale fell through, Clark refusing to disturb the spirit title. In a storm which came through Clarksdale a short time afterward the cabin was blown down, but still Aunt Dilsie refused to leave the spot, and another was built where the old one had stood. One morning net body was found stretched upon the grave of her young “missus,” and now the little girl and her black mammy rest side by side, awaiting the trumpet call. This is a true but pathetic story of the recent land boom that struck this rqgion a short time ago. Chauncey M. Depew is having a mausoleum built in the Peekskill cemetery as a memorial to his deceased wife. In this little rural burying ground rest the bodies ol all his ancestors. The grave of his mother is marked by a handsome monument, and it is his wish to similarly ornament that of his wife. Tin design selected is severely classical and,-simple, and the mausoleum will be constructed in solid granite, tc last for all time. Its cost will reach about $20,000.